Original purpose of the Orokin pop-up pillars?

[(PSN)crashteddy03]

In the Orokin Void/Derelict/Deimos tilesets, several rooms and hallways have these annoying pillars that pop up as you approach them. Sometimes these hamper movements as you run smack bang into them. Occasionally you'll hit one just right and be propelled into the roof...

But it suddenly occurred to me - what was their original purpose? What on earth would the Orokin need these things for?

Practical jokes perhaps? Or maybe to stop those darn kids from running in the halls? I don't know if this is covered by the lore anywhere, but I'm curious as to what other Tenno make of them.

Give me your best ideas!

[Maelphaedor]

I always assumed it was a hold over from an unimplemented cover system, like say Gears of War has. And even without a cover system, they can still be used to give you a bit of breathing space to regen shields if there's a lot of fire coming from that direction you can't take head-on at the moment.

 

[Drasiel]

I always assumed they were defensive barriers. The entire tower system is obviously in some sort of guard mode with the neural sentry active and taking control of enemies and that the reason they activate when we get near them is because tenno are still recognized as tower personnel. What gets even weirder is in a few specific quests we find out the pop up barriers also contain terminals we can access.

[(XBOX)EternalDrk Mako]

maybe they needed places to rest their long arms ? 

[(PSN)Madurai-Prime]

Yea it's just a futuristic version of people in action movies using walls, car doors, and flipped tables as a form of cover. Pretty well designed actually. If someone storms the place you funnel them in a hallway and blast em from behind the pillar. 

It's too bad they weren't expecting superpowered ninjas!

[(PSN)robotwars7]

as others have said, mostly they are used as tactical cover. something like that could be done IRL with big enough steel/concrete pillars and a strong enough mechanism (probably hydraulic) to hoist it up, with a proximity sensor to trigger it. it's weird that the Tower istelf treats you as an ally, allowiung you cover and energy from Death Orbs if you use a prime frame, yet the Corrupted themselves who are supposed to be under the Neural Sentry's contorl treat you as an intruder. it's kinda weird when you think about it:

Sentry: "HEY! you can't be here, Corrupted units, open fire!"

Tenno: "but wait I worked for the Orokin!"

Sentry: "oh yeah... in that case you may use the death orbs and cover pillars!"

Tenno: "could you also stop the Corrupted from-"

Sentry: "-to protect yourself from the Corrupted, who will OPEN FIRE!!!"

[(XBOX)CaligulaTwily]

Used to be used for cover, back when Old Parkour was around and the game was a lil more tactical. 

[KittySkin]

1 minute ago, (XBOX)CaligulaTwily said:

Used to be used for cover, back when Old Parkour was around and the game was a lil more tactical. 

This. Those pilars are from the pre parkour era, where we used to run and have a stamina bar.

[kyori]

Yes game wise was the pre-parkour era. 

Now they serve as trolls to hamper your movement.

[Zeddypanda]

Lore-wise, look at the the spy missions in Lua. Sometimes the hackable computers will be attached to these half-pillars poking out of the ground. They're what looks like public computer interfaces, probably because the Orokin could never think of inventing practical things like "pockets" or "bags", and thus had to resort to splattering computers every ten feets.

The two halves also block eachother, so you can only use one at a time. Orokin were this astounding combination of stupid, lazy, and fabulously wealthy.

[(XBOX)Ancient Mutt]

Old parkour and tactical shielding but I also seem to remember them shooting out laser beams kinda like the corridor ones in Lua's stealth puzzle. Now they're just there to hinder Gauss, I think.

[YUNoJump]

Orokin are big on aesthetics, so it makes sense that even their militarised Towers are primarily designed with pretty hallways and plants, and the actual combat stuff is hidden away until needed. Same goes for all the consoles hidden away, they want everything neat and tidy. Even the giant death lasers look like nice orbs until they open up. I don't have an explanation for the ice floors though.

Gameplay-wise, if they weren't there then enemies would end up crowded behind corners for cover in most big rooms, as there's no cover anywhere else.

[Obviousclone]

it's a cover system but not for us.

The ai if you've let them live long enough you'll notice, use cover from guard rails to the sides of crates.

[TARINunit9]

2 hours ago, (PSN)crashteddy03 said:

But it suddenly occurred to me - what was their original purpose? What on earth would the Orokin need these things for?

The Orokin were obsessed with private armies and slavedriving. One was likely caused by the other. A standard Orokin had access to the Low Guardians, the Dax, the Corrupted, the Scoria, the Clan of the Beast of Bones, and many more. Get high enough you could even use the Tenno.

Private armies were a fashion statement for the Orokin. And the opportunity to use them was not uncommon; the masses were very disgruntled, and we know from the Telamon rebellion they were actually a threat to the Orokin.

Designing your ivory fortress to have constant, ever-present chest-high walls and other deployable cover was just a normal thing for the Orokin, like having toilets in the bathroom

[0_The_F00l]

I believe they were some sort of maintenance consoles/ utility switchboards.

You know turn lights on off , reduce the air-conditioning , change the music , charge your vitruvian that sort of thing.

[LarenaBot]

Yeah I think the last post is right. There are a few in... I think the Lua spy vaults that pop up and have security consoles on them.